by A.J. Focht

In its second week in theatres, The Avengers broke over a dozen records, including tying with Avatar and Deathly Hallows Part 2 for fastest to a billion dollars. Considering in just two weeks it became the twelfth highest grossing movie ever, it should be no surprise that Disney has confirmed Avengers 2.

After the phenomenal success of The Avengers, Joss Whedon took some time to thank his longtime fans. Posting a letter on his personal site, Whedon thanked those that have stuck with him. After his heartfelt missive, he posted an interview with ‘Rutherford D. Actualperson’ covering some FAQ for his fans.

The Amazing Spider-Man is kicking up its advertising campaign. Now they have released a four minute preview of the film. It includes a scene where Spider-Man saves a child, but reveals his identity. Moments like this show the clear differences between this Spider-Man and the Spider-Man from the previous movies.

The newest news from The Dark Knight Rises is that Marion Cotillard has confirmed she is not playing Talia Al’Ghul. In a recent interview, the actress revealed that her character was a good throughout. This does not mean Talia Al’Ghul is not in the movie, but Marion Cotillard will not be playing the part.

The CW is moving forward with their new superhero television series, Arrow. Now there is an official synopsis of Arrow available. Some of it follows the traditional Green Arrow story, but there have been some changes, including the city, which has been switched from Star City to Starling City.

NBC’s Community has been green lit for another season, but they moved the show time to Friday nights. The series might be coming back, but it’s not clear if the whole study group will return. Both Chevy Chase and Community creator Dan Harmon have not signed on for the new season.

Jumping on the post-apocalyptic bandwagon, NBC is airing a new show next season called Revolution. The series follows the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic event where all electricity is shut off across the world. It clearly builds off the popularity of Hunger Games, and even includes a bow toting heroine.

In the video game world, Blizzard launched Diablo III at midnight on the 15th. Videogame developers at Bethesda are also looking to move in on Blizzards massively multiplayer online game territory. They have announced they are working on an Elder Scrolls MMO.

by Damon Martin

As summer 2012 fast approaches, in the comic book world the hottest title going right now revolves around the major Marvel event pitting the Avengers against the X-Men. The two biggest powerhouse forces in the Marvel universe are currently battling it out in the pages of a 12-issue bi-weekly release that will run through much of this upcoming year.

Major comic book events are nothing new, and almost every year DC and Marvel put out their own storyline that somehow encompasses most or all of their titles, all touching on a central theme.

In the Marvel world they’ve bounced from the Avengers Disassembled to Civil War to Secret Invasion, and on and on, and DC has managed to have more than their fair share of world shattering events as well.

With Avengers vs. X-Men in full swing for the mega-event of 2012, let’s take a look at the five greatest comic book events of all-time:

5. Infinity Gauntlet

Cosmic badass Thanos (pay attention to those of you that saw The Avengers movie) has captured all of the infinity gems, which give him reign over each of their particular parts of the universe, and locked them onto one all powerful glove now called the Infinity Gauntlet.

With the power to control time, space, mind, soul, reality, and power, Thanos is by far the most powerful being in the universe and he also happens to be in love with a fellow sentient entity known as Death. To impress her he didn’t get her flowers or candies.

No, Thanos wipes out half of life throughout the universe to prove his love (take that John Cusack with your boom box over your head!), and in the process pisses off all of the remaining heroes left throughout the cosmos. They make it their personal goal to stop Thanos at any cost.

This major event, that kicked off in 1991, only lasted six issues, but spawned several titles in the Marvel universe and helped to launch the cosmic future of the comic book world. The biggest downside of this series was the golden skinned Adam Warlock, who was resurrected and helped to defeat Thanos in the long run, while his own comic life was something akin to that of Spider-Pig.

4. Secret Wars

Never has a publisher’s desire to sell toys ever turned out to be such a great comic book event, but that’s how 1984′s Secret Wars all came about.

With the growth of the children’s action figure industry, Marvel wanted the chance to launch their own characters into toy form, and Mattel was willing to make a new line on the premise of the comic giant creating a major storyline involving all of the heroes and villains in the universe to hopefully draw more kids into the books.

It worked like a charm.

Secret Wars was essentially the story of an other worldly character called The Beyonder who is interested in the dynamic of the heroes and villains that live on Earth. He decides to bring a group of both to a different dimension called ‘Battleworld’ where the two factions will battle it out once and for all.

Characters ranged from Captain America to Iron Man to the Fantastic Four to Dr. Doom to Dr. Octopus, and maybe most famously Spider-Man. The reason why he was so famous for this particular series is it was Secret Wars that introduced the new all black costume for the usually red and blue suited web-slinger.

Later it was discovered that the costume was actually alive and eventually became the maniacal Venom, but the origin for the all-black Spider-Man started with Secret Wars.

The book was a huge success through 12-issues, and is still one of the most talked about major events in comic book history.

3. House of M

The X-Men have been a major part of the Marvel universe for decades, and they have had more than their fair share of huge story arcs, but nothing served as a game changer more than 2005′s House of M.

The story revolved around the dangerous mutant called Scarlet Witch (daughter of mutant baddie Magneto), who warps reality to make mutants the dominant force in the world, far outnumbering the human population. This alternate reality features many characters in different roles and new situations, while the Scarlet Witch’s father Magneto rules with his ‘House of M’. In the long run, the Scarlet Witch’s madness brings her to the brink of insanity, and with three words she changed the Marvel universe forever:

“No more mutants.”

And like that, the millions of mutants that lived around the world vanished in an instant. Even in this year’s Avengers vs. X-Men series, the ultimate end of House of M continues to play out as the ‘homo-superiors’ still feel the wrath of the Scarlet Witch and her death sentence to the mutant population. Now only a few hundred mutants live on Earth, struggling to survive with numbers much smaller than before the Scarlet Witch ripped them from reality.

The ripple effect of House of M is still felt in the books ongoing today, something that a lot of past major events have failed to do.

2. The Blackest Night

Writer Geoff Johns did more to revive the failing Green Lantern franchise than any writer in the last 30 years, but it was his masterful work leading into Blackest Night that may be his greatest achievement yet.

Woven through a multitude of storylines starting with Johns’ re-telling of how Hal Jordan became a Green Lantern, all the way to the Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night was literally an epic tale years in the making.

When it all came to pass, an evil overlord named Nekron brought all of the long gone heroes and villains back to life to help lead his army of the dead, as they attacked and spread their evil, all in hopes of finding the original source of life in the universe.

Nothing was more chilling than in the first issue as Hawkman and Hawkgirl are slaughtered by their good friends Elongated Man and Sue Dibny. Thus, an 8-issue tour de force kicked off that spanned all of the titles in the DC Universe, and featured numerous off-shoots as well.

The book brought back many good guys and bad guys long since gone, and in a great storytelling effort, Johns along with artist Ivan Reis, managed to tell one of the great tales in the history of comic books. While DC has now rebooted the entire line with their ‘New 52′ contingency, Blackest Night was one of the best major events the company as ever done.

1. Crisis on Infinite Earths

If Blackest Night was one of the greatest stories ever told in the DC Universe, then 1985′s Crisis on Infinite Earths was definitely the tops.

Throughout the history of the DC Universe, many characters had undergone a shift in back story or even current storylines due to different writers all having a different vision for how characters should be portrayed.

Eventually, it was decided that in reality there were a number of alternate realities where characters could have multiple copies of themselves, all living at once, but all with different back stories and current agendas.

That is until the evil Anti-Monitor decides he wants to destroy the multiverse, and everyone that inhabits the worlds. He’s almost successful too, despite the best efforts of heroes like Superman, Batman and others that try valiantly to stop him. Eventually, the Anti-Monitor is defeated, but not until he converges all of the worlds into one distinct reality.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a great series because of the magnitude of the overall storyline, where beloved characters like Barry Allen (The Flash) and others died, and it reached every part of the DC Universe.

It’s widely recognized as one of the greatest series of books in comics’ history and was re-visited in the 2005 series Infinite Crisis. Heralded as a landmark series, Crisis on Infinite Earths still holds up today with great writing, fantastic art, and a tale that can be retold for generations to come.

So those are the five series I believe make up the greatest events in comic book history? Did I leave any out? Feel free to comment below!

by A.J. Focht

The Avengers has done more than just live up to the extremely high expectations it set forth, it did better than anyone imagined. It’s broken several records already, being the fastest movie to gross $100 million and $200 million as well as smashing the opening weekend record. One of the only records it left intact was the one set by Deathly Hallow Part 2 for a midnight release. Perhaps more importantly, fans and critics everywhere are raving about it.

Critics who didn’t enjoy the movie might be better off just keeping their opinions to themselves or they risk summoning the wrath of S.H.I.E.L.D. After A.O. Scott of the New York Times gave The Avengers a mediocre review, Samuel L. Jackson sent out a call to action to his fans on Twitter to find Scott a new job he could actually do. While many did rally behind Jackson, his remarks made something of a martyr out of Scott and his review, and the small group not pleased with The Avengers jumped to Scott’s aid.

Anyone who hasn’t seen The Avengers might want to jump ahead as there are some major SPOILERS coming….First, let’s talk about our favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. member, Agent Phil Coulson. We all watched him “die” bravely at the hands of Loki, but is that really the end of our hero? In a recent interview, actor Clark Gregg mentioned he is still signed on for two more movies. He doesn’t say what movie, but does say he has a meeting with the director of Thor 2. Could Nick Fury have just been pulling one over on the Avengers to get them to work as a team?

A new trailer for Amazing Spider-Man was released with The Avengers this last week. It sheds more light on the story of Peter’s search into his parent’s past. The trailer is fairly good, but was ultimately forgettable after seeing The Avengers.

Illustrator of Kick-Ass comics, John Romita Jr. has shed some light on the future of the Kick-Ass 2 movie. The film is starting production this summer. It is currently unclear if Chloe Moretz will return as Hit Girl as she has a full filming schedule. Either way, the movie is set to release in May 2013.

Michael Arndt, writer of Toy Story 3, is in talks to rewrite the Catching Fire script. Francis Lawrence has taken over as director on the film, and now they are looking at reworking the script. All of this has to be done fast as the movie is scheduled to release in November 2013.

James Cameron has closed down the development arm of his production studios and doesn’t want to think about doing any new projects. For the foreseeable future, Cameron’s mind is stuck on Avatar and only Avatar. In a recent interview, Cameron said his mind is set on making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, and maybe Avatar 4 and that is all.

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus comes out next month, and it now has a rating of R. The film decided to take the hit and not adjust to make the film PG-13. While this might narrow their audience base, it will hopefully help ensure the film is accepted by fans.

What would you say to Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt acting in a big screen production of Little Shop of Horrors? Well, that is just what Levitt and Warner Bros. are working towards. Levitt is currently one of the producers on the project and would also like an on-screen role.

by Alex Dueben

The idea is rule by individual consent.
- Ted Naifeh

Ted Naifeh first gained recognition as the artist and co-creator of the comic series Gloomcookie, but it was the release of his own creation, Courtney Crumrin that really made his reputation. Since the initial miniseries Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things was released a decade ago by Oni Press, Naifeh has returned to the character a few times in between other projects.

He illustrated Death Jr. comics, collaborated with Tristan Crane on How Loathsome and illustrated Holly Black’s Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy from Scholastic. Naifeh also wrote and drew Polly and the Pirates and wrote a sequel which was released earlier this year.

Courtney has always remained Naifeh’s best-loved creation, and this month Oni Press debuts a new full color Courtney Crumrin ongoing series, which serves as both an excellent introduction to Courtney and her world for new readers and a welcome return for those who know her well. Naifeh may have joked that the ten year anniversary of Courtney is making him feel old, but Naifeh remains just as talented a creator and as nice a person as he was when we first met years ago.

Read our exclusive interview with Ted Naifeh on SuicideGirls.com.

by A.J. Focht

This last week at StarFest 2012 in Denver, I had a chance to sit down with some amazing comic writers including Tony Bedard. Bedard has been writing comics since the ‘90s and is the current writer on Blue Beetle and Green Lantern New Guardians.

A.J. Focht: How do you like working with Kyle Rayner in the Green Lantern New Guardians comic?

Tony Bedard: Credit where credits due, Geoff Johns had the idea to end the first issue by sending a ring of every color to Kyle. We were talking about what I wanted to do with this series, and he was the one at some point that said, ‘Why don’t you end the first issue with a ring of every color coming to him.’ It was the thing that broke open the whole story, and set up this great mystery that we’ve been trying to follow up ever since. We’re going to finish that off by issue twelve, let you know why that happened, and the significance of it.

A.J.: In New Guardians you use rings of most every color. Do you have any plans to do anything with the Black or White Lanterns in New Guardian?

TB: It’s not so much about White Lanterns, but there is a character, the Weaponer, that was in my Green Lantern Core run. He had picked up some of that white energy and put it in his shield and hammer. It’s become this morphing weapon so that whatever he is up against he can change that hammer to meet the situation. He’s going to be in issue #8. He was only going to be in for about one issue, but it has kind of snowballed into a thing where he’s going to stick around for a few more issues and play a big role.

A.J.: That’s good to hear. Since a lot was retconned during the change to the New 52, it was unclear what events from Blackest Night and Brightest Day have actually taken place.

TB: I’m still personally trying to figure out what had changed and what hasn’t. I would say generally that Green Lantern was not revised as much.

A.J.: Do you have any other projects, or are you just sticking with these two?

TB: These are the two right now. We’ve discussed a few other things, but they really haven’t got any traction yet. I’ve been plenty busy and quite happy with what I have right now. We have big plans for Green Lantern. Geoff always has a long term plan, and New Guardians is a big part of that, this whole third army thing that’s coming together. When you look back, you’ll be able to see a lot of what happens in New Guardians is building towards that. We’ve tried to keep the books separate so they each have their own identity, but the Green Lantern books will be intertwining a little bit here in the year to come.

A.J.: Your other book, Blue Beetle is a new take on an old hero. What’s it been like working with that book?

TB: When we started this [the New 52] we wanted to have a comic for everyone.

A.J.: Yeah, there are many niche comics.

TB: Yes. Well I use a lot of Spanglish in the comic, because I am of Puerto Rican decent that’s what it sounded like growing up. It surprised me the responses I got to that. The response from the Hispanic fans who read it was, ‘Yeah, that’s right’ But a lot of other folks who weren’t used to that were like, ‘Okay, we know he’s Mexican, don’t beat us over the head with it.’

A.J.: Do you have any plans to do a crossover with Blue Beetle?

TB: There’s a little crossover in Blue Beetle #9 and New Guardians #9. In Blue Beetle #9, Blue Beetle meets Kyle, and Red Lantern Bleez, and Orange Lantern Globulus on Earth. At the same time in New Guardians #9, the Reach who created Blue Beetles armor will actually be invading the Blue Lantern’s home world, trying to wipe them out and take their power battery. That story actually became so big that it was rolled into two issues. There is a mystery there too as to how Reach found the Blue Lantern home world, because it’s cloaked. Somebody tipped them off. A lot of that stuff, as you look around the lantern verse, happens to all the different cores. It could just be a coincidence, but you start to see a pattern.

A.J.: Do you have plans to expand the reach of Blue Beetle to reach other demographics?

TB: I think mostly we try to keep that as a personal book, to focus on that character. We do have the Green Lantern thing, and actually in issue #10 he is going to meet Booster Gold. But in a way that you would not expect, it’s not the happy meeting everyone will expect. It’s not the same relationship he had with Ted at all.

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by A.J. Focht

A new Dark Knight Rises trailer is out. This trailer seems to have fixed the problem with Bane’s voice. Although, now there are complaints about it sounding like it’s a separate audio track.

The Avengers has released internationally, but we still have a few days to wait until it comes to theatres here in America. Spoilers for the movie have been running high, despite many believing the international version is missing a few scenes. With only a few days till the movie hits, I am avoiding spoilers at all costs. While I can’t tell you what happens in the movie, I can tell you it has already pulled in $178 million overseas. I can also tell you that the positive response to Hulk in the movie is changing the tune of Marvel executives who thought his franchise was dead. With the increase of popularity, it now looks like a new Hulk movie might be coming in 2015.

Marvel has already changed the actor playing Hulk from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo, but what do they intend to do when other stars, like Robert Downey Jr, move on? Marvel Studios president Kevin Fiege addressed that issue at CinemaCon saying they would not reboot the series. He said:

‘I think Bond is a good example. Let’s put it this way: I hope Downey makes a lot of movies for us as Stark. If and when he doesn’t, and I’m still here making these movies, we don’t take him to Afghanistan and have him wounded again. I think we James Bond it’.

Director of Chronicle, Josh Trank, has been signed to develop the script for a Fantastic Four reboot. It is unknown whether he will also direct the movie and as of now it looks like it will be based on how the script turns out. If Trank makes this anything like Chronicle it might be more of a Dr. Doom movie and less of a Fantastic Four film, which I am more than okay with.

The Wolverine will be shooting in Japan and Australia this year, and is set for release on July 26, 2013. Fox is determined to get the most out of the rights to the X-Men and Marvel’s mutants while they have them. Now they are also talking about doing a New Mutants movie, although it is unclear if that will be in addition to a sequel for X-Men: First Class or if it will be the sequel.

Rumored Star Trek 2 spoilers have now been confirmed. If you wanted to see Star Trek 2 completely unspoiled, skip ahead now. Still here? Okay, but I warned you. First up, Leonard Nimoy will be back as Spock Prime. Not surprised yet? How about, the Klingons will be featured in the second movie. That’s not all, we have all been lied to. Benedict Cumberbatch will not be playing a new villain, but will be reprising the roll of Khan in the upcoming Star Trek film. There you have it, three spoilers no waiting.

Last week I mentioned that Peter Jackson was shooting The Hobbit at 48-frames per second (fps). Not everyone was as excited by the change as I was. At CinemaCon last week, fans were unimpressed by the fps change, some complaining it made the film look homemade. Jackson responded to the criticism saying it is something film goers will just come to except. I think he’s right; this is likely just a case of people complaining about change cause it is new and different, not necessarily worse.

Finally, science fiction is catching up with reality. Multiple billionaires including James Cameron and the people behind Google have unveiled plans for mining asteroids. This little bit of science fiction could become a very practical way to extract resources without taking them from the earth. With governments cutting space program budgets around the world, it is good to see someone at least trying to make headway into the final frontier.

by Tita Suicide

Vancouver experienced it’s first Fan Expo April 21st thru 22nd, giving local comic book fans, gamers, pop culture enthusiasts, and SuicideGirls the chance to experience a Comic Con first hand. In the past year, a whole new crop of VanCity SuicideGirls went pink, and they were stoked to join the other BCSG’s at our booth over the weekend.

It was such fun to see the look on everyone’s faces when R2D2 and Darth Vader arrived! The sight of Aadie, Alkaline, Ceres, Cruella, Femme, Harajuku, Peatrie, Rydell, and Yulia posing with their Star Wars heroes caused quite a stir.

The ensuing pictures illustrate the excitement, cosplay, fun, and silliness that went on at the Vancouver Convention Centre, inside the SuicideGirls booth, and at the #SGTAKESVANCITY after party.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to share in the fun!! Be sure to catch the SuicideGirls at the Philadelphia Comic Con May 31st, to June 3, 2012.

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